I had this unfortunate tendency to draw tabletops too high, making the characters look really short. This is kind of going on with Bill in the last panel here. Which is too bad, because his pose in the first panel, as he's sitting down, is pretty good.

Bill is massively less intimidated by women than Dave is. To be fair to Dave, most of the women he meets are really scary.

I mentioned this back in the commentary for the time-travel storyline, but in my private backstory for Dave, his parents are long-divorced and his dad is essentially out of the picture. That's why Dave and Bill only ever mention their mom.

This strip was definitely influenced by "Bloom County" and Milquetoast the Cockroach's habit of bathing and/or bedding down in people's food. It's not quite in character for Artie to go hot-tubbing in people's drinks like that, but wouldn't he look adorable?

"Three Coins in the Fountain" features memorably in the greatest John Hughes movie, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but I confess with no small amount of shame that I mostly know it from the musical Forever Plaid, which I was really, really into in high school.

At the time I wrote this, my wok was my best piece of kitchen equipment. Now my best piece of kitchen equipment is my chili pot. I don't have any other commentary on this strip, I just wanted to mention how much I love that chili pot.

Oh, and in the third panel I should have drawn Dave walking in the opposite direction, to keep the action flowing visually from left to right. But it's okay, because I own a chili pot.

This strip is way too wordy, but the beat panel turned out well. I especially like Zeta's hair. That's the kind of detail I almost never manage to draw effectively, and the panel wouldn't be funny without it.

You know, this strip is great. It was so worth spending a week setting up the singing androids and stuff so I could end on this little moment of Zen.

Plot-wise, this week demonstrates the way different people perceive reality in the Narboniverse, which is a crucial plot point way down the line. So I hope you were paying attention to yesterday's strip with all the crowded word balloons.

Dave seems to be having trouble explaining the more esoteric aspects of his job to his family. He should probably start with the basics, like "Disney cartoons are real now" and "I control a team of moon robots for reasons which ironically have nothing to do with my IT degree".

I heard her ask for an interview,"Can I talk to you?"The Madblood robots were wanting to free up their minds,So we rideIn a truckTo the north!

She said her name, it was Zeta V,And she talked to me ...She's got a thing for mad science, can't leave her behindAs we rideIn a truckTo the north!

As we drive through Minnesota,We stopped and got some friesAnd some pastry for a breakfast treat!There's a place where we can go toAway from Madblood's eyes!Hey Bill, we brought donuts!My bro thinks I'm so nuts!

Zeta V's not my girl,She's just a girl who talks with gerbils a lot,I must admit she's hot!

Zeta V's not my girl,She's just a girl that I won't hit on becauseI'm hung up on my boss!

Bill fails to grasp the basic cool factor of lab coats. At my current job, we have static-reducing lab coats for the people working in the electronics labs. Lots of guys keep them on all day, just because ... well, just because.

As Raven from Questionable Content put it, "It just feels more science-y."

Man, Bob, you do not want to open up that can of fish. There's so much overwhelming evidence that Dave isn't hallucinating everything. You can't hallucinate like you're accusing Dave of doing and hold down a job, much less get one. And without a job, there's no chance that Dave would have been able to rent the truck. If he didn't rent the truck (and instead stole it,) the cops would have picked him up in fairly short order. Without Artie the superintelligent talking gerbil, Dave wouldn't have picked up Zeta, who Bill does see. Not to mention that there are events in the strip Dave was never aware of, but we are- like Burning Gerbil.

Ultimately, though, if you want your theory to have any credence you need to have any evidence to support it. "Maybe" doesn't cut it.

Who says Dave really has a job? Who says he's in a truck instead of his original car (which was never actually destroyed)? I'm thinking Dave is like John Forbes Nash, Jr of "A Beautiful Mind".

As for proof: if someone came to you and said he had a superintelligent gerbil, had been to the moon, and made friends there with an army of robots, the burden of proof would be on him, not on you.

And BTW, what's this weird "Narbonic" about anyway? Most of the panels have nothing drawn in them, and word balloons are almost non-existent. Every now and then, I see a picture of a person saying a non-sequitor, then it's back to all-blank boxes. I have no idea what you people <ahem> SEE in it.

Jon Stout (brasswatchman) says:
Huh. So Dave's dad is missing? Any backstory in that? Given that Mad Science is clearly genetic in this story...

Rob (rrreed) says:
@Bob—I see someone's been reading "Garfield Minus Garfield" again. Still, it's an interesting idea; retelling the story with Dave seeing and hearing just flashes of the unreality surrounding him, with the flashes becoming longer and more pronounced the more advanced his madness becomes.

Three Coins in a Fountain was often on late-night TV when I was a kid, and I always found that song so romantic. I loved Forever Plaid, too. "Three coins in a fountain," Jules Styne & Sammy Cahn (1954)

"Three coins in a fountain" That's what the androids sang But Bill cannot hear them So Dave he will harangue

One gerbil in coffee Does like to skinny-dip But Bill cannot see him Stop! Bill! Don't take that sip!

Weirdness filter leaves him blind He thinks Dave's out of his mind

Bill Davenport's normal He'll never understand The world that Dave lives in Is anything but bland

Dave walking the other direction is indicative of his life going against the flow. The artist clearly illustrates the conflict within Dave, merely by having him walk from right to left. This is the genius that is Narbonic.

I use a pressure cooker to make chili. What makes your pot so special?

Now that I'm looking at this again, this strip is pretty clever in linking last week's jokes about Dave's skewed vision of Bill with this week's exposition about Bill's skewed vision of Dave's company.

@James Rice and ET: It's a little off-topic, but since you mentioned Weird Al and the Truck Drivin' Song, I couldn't help but think what Dave could have done with a little more time to "customize" their vehicle ...

(TUNE: "Truck Drivin' Song", Weird Al Yankovic)

This truck's driving me, the truck is driving me!Though it's artificial, it's intelligent, you see!And we've got the strangest cargo that people ever saw ...Truck's driving me, up to Ca-na-da!

These robots for my help must beg; Gotta get to Winnipeg, But at the rental place, they're out of luck! And 'cause I'm such a clever guy, I installed a cool A.I. Into this great big mother-lovin' truck!

Oh, that Madblood we're avoiding, he's such an orn'ry cuss, His satellite can spot us from the sky! Although it's quite conspicuous, I still got this bus for us Because really I wanted to, that's why!

And now this truck's driving me, big truck's driving me!Fifteen thousand robots are just yearning to be free,If the 'bots are proletarian, then humans are bourgeois ...Truck's driving me, up to Ca-na-da!

[key change!]This truck's driving me, the truck is driving me!Hot dogs at the truck stop are now buy one, get one free!And I'll buy some Circus Peanuts, and jerky I can gnaw ...Truck's driving me, up to Ca-na-da!